Kickstarter launch for VCK: Crimson Seas, Ward Tower, & Corsairs of Valeria!

On March 4th, we launched 3 new products on Kickstarter and the project was funded in less than 3 hours! We are extremely excited about these games and are thrilled that you are too! Let’s see what’s new:

Crimson Seas:

In Crimson Seas, you will obtain Maps to new far-off lands beyond the borders of Valeria allowing you to import trade Goods from Araby to increase your victory points, purchase Tomes of great power to augment your resource production at Nae Aerie, rescue captured Nobles from the villainous Amarynth Empire, and plunder the wealth of Exekratys, the cursed isle. Beware the monsters of the sea, though, as they increase in strength, sowing chaos throughout all of Valeria.

Along the top of the play area is a new game board called "The Islands". To access the Islands you need to use a new action called "Sail" and to sail, you've got to spend one MAP token. Then you can access Araby to gain Goods, Nae Aerie to gain Tomes, Exekratys to retrieve lost resources, and Amarynth to rescue captured Noble's.

We’ve also added to the game a new starting Citizen called The Coxswain. It triggers if doubles are rolled or if the roll doesn't trigger any of your Citizens. If you're the active player, a triggered Coxswain will pay out 2 like resources of your choice and 1 Map. If you're an inactive player, you can choose 2 like resources or 1 Map. The Coxswain adds interesting benefits to special and uneventful rolls and gives players access to the Maps needed to get to the Islands.

In addition to The Islands and The Coxswain we’ve add quite a bit more, too. There are new citizens, new Domains, new Monsters, new icons, new tokens, new mechanics, and lots of new cards for all the existing card types. So much fun, new stuff!

Ward Tower:

The Ward Tower cards replace one of the Domain stacks in the game. Each Ward Tower needs 9 Gold, 9 Strength, and 9 Magic to complete and a player may take an action to pay one set of those resources and place their Banner on the card. When three Banners have been placed on a Ward Tower card, the tower is complete. Each player who contributed takes their Banner back and flips it over to the 5VP side, then the Ward Tower card is placed next to the Monster row. Each completed Ward Tower may be used once on your turn to reduce the cost to slay any monster 1 Strength or 1 Magic as you choose. This benefit is cumulative and is available to all players, even if they did not contribute to building the Ward Towers.

This is a Kickstarter Limited Exclusive and will not be available at retail. It may be available on our website, conventions, or the BGG Store depending on how many extra we have after fulfilling to our backers.

Corsairs of Valeria:

With the current Commodore lost at sea, you and your fellow Corsairs have set out to complete the traditional challenge – the first captain to sail the Valerian Isles and gather enough silver to fill six treasure chests will be the new Commodore. Seize the dice and roll, you scurvy Orc lover!

Coins earn you silver, Grog gives you the power to re-roll your dice, Cannons let you attack merchant ships or opponents to take their silver, and Maps move your ship forward. Watch out for the curses though, because each one you roll means a silver coin lost to Exekratys, more commonly known as Skull Island to true Corsairs.

Track your Treasure and Grog with special Ship boards and dials. Place Silver on or next to your Ship board to track it. When you have 5 Silver, immediately gain 1 Treasures and return the Silver to the supply.

Your Captain card gives you a special player power that could help you win, if you use it to your best advantage.

If you're the first player to reach Skull Island, you'll get all of the coins that were lost to cursed dice, but if that doesn't fill your sixth treasure chest, the race resets and you keep on sailing. The first Captain to reach Skull Island on the second leg of the race grabs the loot and stops the race. Whichever Captain has the most Treasure wins. If there's a tie, the tied player with the most silver wins. Still tied? Compare how much grog you've got!

This game was originally self-published by Wouter van Strien (Fully Analog) as “Wacky Pirates”. We’ve updated a few rules and upgraded some of the components. It now slots in perfectly to the Valeria universe.

In the new version of the game we’ve added new islands to the map to create some interesting decisions as you get closer to Exekratys (Skull Island). We’ve also re-balanced the Captains from the original game and are adding in a 6th Captain thanks to a stretch goal reached by our backers! Component-wise we’ve included cool new ‘Grog’ dials and punchboard coins. It’s looking like we might reach even more stretch goals and more content before it’s all said and done. To top it all off, we’ve even reduced the price down to $25!